Despite the hesitancy of some purists, the unofficial cristalino tequila category keeps growing as an increasing number of major brands release their own take on this style. The latest to join the fray is OG luxury brand Patrón, which is dropping a new cristalino añejo tequila.
If you’re unfamiliar with term, cristalino refers to aged tequila that has been filtered to remove its color before bottling, a style that can be traced back to the creation of Maestro Dobel Diamante in 2009. The category has exploded in popularity with brands like Casamigos, Espolon, Mijenta, Codigo 1530, and Kevin Hart’s Gran Coramino releasing their own versions over the past year or so. There seems to be a few reasons for the rapid uptick—consumers are buying it, bartenders love to be able to make cocktails with aged tequila and not change the color, and brands are always looking for ways to expand their portfolios.
Enter Patrón, the extremely popular luxury tequila brand (owned by Bacardi since 2018) that has a wide range of expressions. According to the brand, the new cristalino expression was made using both a tahona stone and roller mill to extract the sugars from the agave, it was fermented in wooden vats, and aged for 12 to 15 months in French oak, Hungarian oak, and used American whiskey barrels. Finally, the tequila was filtered through wood charcoal by master distiller David Rodriguez and his team to remove the color while keeping the flavor intact.
That is often the issue with cristalino. According to its detractors, filtration ultimately removes some of the flavor along with the color, and that is why many use additives to restore some of what is lost. That being said, there are some brands making cristalino that claim to be additive-free, and Patrón is one of those (if there is less than one percent, it doesn’t have be disclosed). The brand was on its way to be certified additive-free by Tequila Matchmaker a few years ago, a website trusted by many as being a transparent source of information, but the process fell apart and Patrón ended up not making the list. Also, Patrón was set to unveil its own “additive free” seal on its bottles last year endorsed by the CRT, the Mexican organization that governs tequila, but it backed away and the labels never appeared. All of this does not mean that Patrón is not additive-free, but at this point this information is entirely based on its own messaging—which, to be fair, is very adamant about that fact that no additives are used.
We have not had the chance to sample Patron Cristalino yet, but according to Rodriguez the palate has “naturally sweet notes of butterscotch and vanilla, lightly cooked agave, and a smooth finish.” It is available nationwide now (SRP $80), and you can find it available to purchase from websites like Total Wine.
